BUFFALO — Body clocks are not an issue for Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas.
The Colorado Avalanche looked a bit sleepy at times early on in the team’s first East Coast matinee of the season, but the dynamic duo of MacKinnon and Necas made sure that wasn’t a problem against the Buffalo Sabres.
MacKinnon scored twice, set up both times by Necas, and Scott Wedgewood made 28 saves to help the Avs prevail Monday afternoon, 3-1, at KeyBank Center.
“It was great,” MacKinnon said. “We built off last game. He created so much time and space for me on his delays. I’m trying to let him do a lot off the rush, because he’s so good at it.
“It’s really fun to play with him. (Artturi Lehkonen) makes it all possible with his routes and his net presence. … Marty set me up for 10 chances. Only got two, but he’s been flying.”
The Avs are now 3-0-1 to start the season. The Sabres are 0-3-0, and there were chants to fire general manager Kevyn Adams in the waning moments.
MacKinnon put the Avs on the board first with some improvisational magic. Necas sent a pass to him near the top of the right circle on the rush. MacKinnon caught it and slipped it behind his back to himself in one motion, then collected it with his back to the goal and backhanded a shot past Sabres goalie Alex Lyon at 3:14 of the first period.
“It was weird,” MacKinnon said. “I got spun around and still had some time with it. Then the goalie wasn’t really looking. I don’t know how great it was, but I’ll take it.”
The Avs spent 7:45 of the first period on the penalty kill, and at times looked like their body clocks were stuck in mountain time. Buffalo had a bunch of shots early, then Tage Thompson evened the score late in the first after an Avalanche turnover.
The puck didn’t get out along the left wall, then Alex Tuch was able to corral it during a scramble near the blue line and bump it to Thompson, who snapped a hard wrist shot from the top of the zone that beat Wedgwood to his right side with 3:28 left in the opening 20 minutes.
Colorado started the second period in similar fashion to the first, but Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar took advantage of a Buffalo gaffe to reclaim the lead. Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin tried to one-time a pass into the middle of the ice from his own zone, but he found Nichushkin’s stick.
Nichushkin deked to the left of Lyon, but held onto the puck before slipping it to a cutting Makar for a tap-in at 4:32 of the second. It was Makar’s first goal of the season.
More from the MacKinnon-Necas duo made it a 3-1 advantage midway through the second. Colorado went with those two, plus Makar and Devon Toews, for a 4-on-4 situation, and that quartet carved up the Sabres with ease.
Necas carried the puck toward the top of the left circle and left it for MacKinnon, who charged toward Owen Power, made a quick move, and then beat Lyon with a wrist shot at 11:59.
It was MacKinnon’s fourth goal of the season. He and Necas now have eight points each through four games.
“(MacKinnon) had a really strong night,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Strong on pucks, relentless and tenacious the whole night when it came to the offensive side of the game. It’s the type of performance you kind of need sometimes.
“I think we had a little bit of a slow start, but got better as the game went on. He was certainly our best offensive player.”
It could have been an even bigger afternoon for the pair. MacKinnon hit the post after another Necas setup in the first period. Necas had a goal wiped off the board because the Avs were offside entering the zone in the third.
Colorado did have a scare early in the third period when No. 2 center Brock Nelson got cut on his left wrist by ex-Avalanche defenseman Bo Byram’s skate along the boards. Nelson immediately left the game, but ended up only needing a couple of stitches and was able to return for the final nine minutes.
Despite some of the early turnovers and choppy play, the Avs outshot the Sabres 15-4 in the third period and put the clamps on a team trying to win its first game of the season.
“That’s a hard game for us,” MacKinnon said. “Flying in, the time change — it’s like a 10 a.m. start for us. It was early, but I thought we got better as the game went on. They’re pretty desperate.
“We knew we’d get a good effort from them. … I just thought in the third we kind of kept building. We played well in the second half of the game.”
Footnotes: The Avs sent goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to the Colorado Eagles for a conditioning stint. Blackwood missed all of training camp and the first three games of the season because of an undisclosed injury. … Sean Behrens, who was injured during camp, was also activated and sent to the Eagles. He does not need to go through waivers and can join the AHL club immediately.
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